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Ravi Shekhar Pandey
There was a time when a company would just look at the location or interior design or other physical elements such as wiring or conveniences such as power back up for setting up its office. These elements remain important. However, today, for most companies, the most important criterion for deciding on a building for locating their office is 'intelligence'. Companies are increasingly looking for 'intelligent buildings'-buildings that incorporate information technology and communication systems, making them not just comfortable and secure, but also more productive and cost-effective. These buildings also give users more control over their environment and help them optimize all their resources.
Given that, the role of a CIO is increasingly becoming an important factor in the design of intelligent building, and builders and architects are increasingly consulting them. As Deepak Konnur, head, IT, North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) points out that the role of CIOs is increasing, as he provides the technological know-how and can help design a scalable flexible infrastructure to meet future changes. “Builders are increasingly consulting CIOs because of changing user requirements. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the builder to understand the technological needs of the occupant,” he adds. Agrees Arindam Bose, head, IT, LG Electronics, when he says that a CIO is responsible for providing information required for making the building easily available and secure at the same time.
| Elements of an Intelligent Building |
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Environment
Heating/Cooling-AC plant should be planned with proper shaft and supply
Lighting
Building Management and Security
Flexible power and plant Distribution-UPS system, Power backup
Structured IT and Telecom Network
Reduced Building Operation Costs
Well planned seating on each floor, location of data center, server rooms, telecom room, wiring closets, and lifts
Operational and Maintenance Risk Transfer
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Konnur emphasizes that while designing an intelligent building, a CIO has several responsibilities. He says that a CIO must identify the risks and define systems interfaces, define the work packages, and overall responsibility for the integration of packages, monitor lines of responsibility, interface diagrams, and detail of program of works-eliminate any unforeseen interface problems and highlight black holes or missing links in the technical chain. “An intelligent building is one that maximizes the efficiency of its occupants and allows effective management of resource with minimum life costs. These buildings are more responsive to user needs and have the ability to adapt to new technology or changes in the organizational structures,” he says.
KR Krishnakumar, VP, IT, Grasim Industries says that present day offices predominantly consist of 'work stations'. Designing a data center itself is a challenge and designing a user floor only adds to this challenge. Given all these, today's designers and architects find it easy to start their project by having an interview with the CIO, Krishnakumar points out. He observes that sizing and locating the UPS, battery banks, generators, AC, etc are done based on the CIO inputs, especially because there are numerous safety aspects to be designed based on the size and location of such equipment. He points out that while large organizations usually have a set of standards for such aspects, small and medium enterprises need to work out the detailed designs considering safety of equipment and data, and safety to humans, emergency evacuation path, etc to suit their floor space and number of employees.
Making Buildings Come Alive
Information technology and telecommunications systems are the brain and nervous system of intelligent buildings. There is no way a modern building can function without them. They would be just dead structures without them. And all investments in information technology and telecommunications systems in a building would be wasted if the structured cabling system weren't right. Structured cabling is the nervous system of an intelligent building. It's the foundation on which the efficiency of all informational technology and networking devices rests.
An intelligent building is one that allows efficient use of all building resources and also ensures integration of different building elements. This essentially means that not just connecting computers, printers or servers etc, but also networking systems such as fire alarm, security, and power supply systems. For instance, in the event of a fire in the building, power generators should immediately stop functioning; all closed doors (run by automated security system for controlled access) must open automatically so that people can get out. As such, a structured cabling system must be designed in such a way that it ensures fast and smooth flow of data over the cabling network across every nook and corner of the building.
According to IEC, providing an internationally standardized structured cabling system and consolidating cable-delivery methods for all the systems can reduce initial construction costs for the cabling infrastructure of a modern intelligent building by up to 30%.
While evaluating structured cabling system for a building, a CIO must look into the things such as usage patterns, including combined size, and duration of peak load for all applications. “Expected increase in bandwidth requirement, which is directly related to the number of users and growth, location of users and maximum distance from these locations to the network switch, expected use of wireless applications, and anticipated changes in technology and applications are some of the important factors that must be taken into consideration before evaluating the cabling system of a building,” says Konnur.
Also important are factors such as the likely rate of change in user locations, connectivity with current and future devices and software and space available for cable runs. Krishnakumar emphasizes that while designing a new building, it is a smarter option to go in for the latest as far as passive components such as cables are concerned. Though some may find deferred re-laying costs to be cheaper than investing 'early', the disruption caused by re-laying the cables could be more expensive to the businesses than an early investment in the latest cables. Of course, most decisions are business specific and building specific.
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